What a Way to Teach Me About Gratitude

Last Saturday, was a little bit unforgettable for me.

A day where I've planned to do soo much including doing makeups for my practice and portfolios, turned into a hectic journey to the hospital.

There I went last Saturday, happily reaching up the cupboard to take 1 bowl for my breakfast and BAM! One of the ceramic bowl slipped and hit my feet, right above my thumb.

At first I thought it will be just a regular bruise, but then I realize NO NO NOOO it was not a normal injury, it feels like being stabbed and I can't move my thumb at all. Not too mention the cut were so deep it created a "hole" on my feet and it bleeds all over the cut. Gross.

Above were zoomed out photos for less disturbing image (at the hospital).

Decided to go to hospital, and guess what?? The bowl apparently managed to make a clean cut of my tendon above my thumb that it requires surgery to reattach them again. That explains the numbness of my thumb and why I can't move my thumb at all. I've decided to do the surgery on the same day, had my FIRST surgery ever, had my FIRST anesthesia ever (daamn that sleeping drug knocked me out in a sec), and slept one day at the hospital for the sake of insurance reimbursement. What. A. Weekend.

After surgery.

After burrito-ed.

So here I am now.. with post surgery burrito and walking sticks for the next 2 weeks.

HAHAHA.

Life's a joke.

Anyhow, with this unfortunate events, I was reminded to be grateful everyday of my life, as now, even doing the simplest thing as walking requires much effort to do so. It reminds me of how I took my life for granted everyday, without me even knowing it. Even something as simple as breathing are being given for free to us, yet somehow we forget to give thanks for it. Why always count for what we didn't have and not be grateful for what we already have?

At least there's the good thing that I can get from this accident.

I'll update you guys next week or so to have a brief look for the stitches, cuz it will be quite cool, with the stitch mark and all, in my opinion. First stitch mark, yaay.

See ya!

Reminiscing My Last Trip to Singapore

My last trip to Singapore were around last year July, to be exact, utilizing long weekend in Indonesia around those period. I went to Singapore with 2 of my friends, and we decide to do some fun in Singapore, even though there was not as much entertainment that we can choose from.

We went for a really "typical" Singapore trip: Garden by the Bay, Universal Studio Singapore, Orchard Road shopping (walking.. to be exact), Art and Science Museum, and food hunting.

There were some highlight that I REFUSE to forget; making this one of the best trip I've ever felt for such a long time:

Had our first lunch in Boon Tong Kee and I've had THE MOST MINDBLOWING ever fried tofu in all my life. Try to recreate them at home but fail miserably. The rest of the meal? Standard. I'd go crazy for the tofu all over again.

After lunch, we went to the most touristy spot in Singapore imo, Gardens by the Bay. We went to Both of the main attraction of course!! Flower Dome and Cloud Forest. What a best way for tourists to enjoy Singapore to the maximum.

Despite the sarcasm, great timing made us swooning over all the beautiful tulips in season, though.

My friend's minion polacamera match well with the yellow tulips.

Not to forget to take wefie as well.

Satisfied with the tulips, on the other weird side of the flower dome where the tulips are, however, were lots of weird shaped succulents all over the place...

and with some of them weird shape, we refuse to comment furthermore. "Just enjoy the nature", they said.

Finish with the Flower Dome, we continue straight to the Cloud Forest side. Not finding anything interesting, we've decided to do some weird pose photo shoot all over the place.

Flower Dome still is the winner from this whole garden-y setting.

Aaand that's it for the first day.

For the second day, we went to the USS, and take our typical photos of USS too! by forcing other Indonesian group to take pictures of us (in exchange for them as well of course! We're not that bad..)

Real holiday proof? Checked!

Not to forget inserting here my friend's weird angle photos that I took that day as well hahahha making them look like minions. In a good way of course!

One of the highlight of my USS trip this time was that I able to conquer BOTH of the roller coaster after chickening out on one of them several years ago. S-A-T-I-S-F-I-E-D! Not that scary though, come to think of it.

The rest of our USS trip were fun, but just okay. One of my friend were very satisfied with the amount of minion statue that she can take picture of.

We had our scrumptious dinner afterwards at Tonkotsu King Ramen, which was very famous in the area and we queued for around 1 hour if I'm not wrong.

It was good, confusing whether it was really good or we're just ravenous. Haha. Either way this meal satisfied our longing for a warm good food after one long day playing in USS. And that's it for the second day!

On our third day, we finally found the winner lunch of them all: Swee Choon Tim Sum.

Appearance-wise were not as good as we've expected, but taste-wise?? MAJESTIC. Tim Ho Wan go away la. This one's very, very nice with reasonable prices for their whole menu. Me and my friends agreed that this place were the winner of all the meal we've ever taste in Singapore this time. Can we go back again, please??

Super satisfied with our meals, we continued our final trip to Art and Science Museum before our flight back. It was...just ok.

Nice, but it was everything you've ever seen on the internet, so it was a little bit underwhelming. Some installation were quite mesmerizing though. 

Will we go again? Don't think so.

The downgrading mood from Art Science Museum was well closed by my repeat share of Oyster Omelette that I ate in the airport.

Must have one in Singapore.

And that's the wrap for whole of my Singapore trip last year!! 

It was such a long trip ago (blame my lack of updates, again), however I feel that this one was the most exciting and fulfilling one as well until now, since this was my first trip WITH my friends after I've gotten used to do solo trip to every other country that I've been to. Solo trip has its own perks though, but having a trip together with the right people and the right amount of people (this! is important) will make those trip far much more unforgettable as well. And I'm very, very grateful for this one.

So, when will be our next trip again??

KUKUKU Portfolio 10: Freestyle Arts

Time for some exploding arts!!

Woohoo!!

Not saying these babies were the best of my freestyle nail art however there are some people that of course like these kind of "DOPE" style, although I can't say these are dope enough to be properly presented..

I've challenged myself to do these natural stone, boho, animated, abstract etc etc..

Disastrous enough? I think so. At that time I was kinda frustrated of how can't I made the lines as thin and as opaque as possible. And still am until now..

This one below is when I try to do some contrast design between normal color and glitters, emphasizing on clean lines between them. So casual yet so glam, combined together. Anyone would like to try? 

Some of other summer themed designs that were not too good but too spoiled to be deleted away..

And see those Mt Fuji below! Quite the impact, I can say. 

Middle design were copied from other artist though, and again, not as opaque as I wanted it to be.. Either I have to change my technique or try different kind of gel polish.

I realized that these several days and weeks, most of my customers always requested me for subtle, "safe" design or feminine ones and I have never had a customer that really open up for some crazy designs. Well, most of them were office ladies so maybe it was a little bit hard for them to try striking designs for their everyday work. And some of them usually requested the service for weddings and other formal events which obviously Mt. Fuji wont fit with the dress.

Maybe someone can be the first one? :)

Instagram : @__kukuku__

Please keep updated, see you on our next post and definitely will be waiting for your visit!

KUKUKU Portfolio 9: Subtle Style

Let us start through my subtle designs for this week.

Realizing that subtle work is so popular in Japan, almost all of my friends there requested to do some simple subtle design for their nails. While in Indonesia is much known that usually people choose the colorful and bling arts (which I kinda hate, if not designed properly), it was a whole different style and techniques for subtle designs there.

For example is this what they called "cheek nails", as it resembles how blush on were applied on your cheek. While usually people choose pink-ish or soft reddish color for this cheek nails, my friend choose the pastel blue and orange as she likes those 2 color the most.

Gave her a little bit of silver and gold foils on the pinky for a little surprising effect too!

I have to say it was the most unthinkable design ever but they can work it damn well. And it was so pretty indeed.

Same cheek nails technique that I use was on this one,

A very very subtle tone of blue and orange for several fingers while the main general designs were a very subtle and see-through beige. Have to admit I did this design copying other artists designs and improvising here an there but it worked quite well.

Have to say the reason why subtle designs work almost for everyone because it enhance your skin color by using it as a main base color for the whole transition form your skin color to the gel/polish color. It literally can't go wrong with subtles.

These 2 designs below is not a complete subtle, however it can be alternatives as it use your own (nail) skin tone too for the whole look.

For example was this one,

which the clear glitter and seashells gel completely brighten the owner's skin complex, and below;

which tone down the shocking pink color so it adapts to the skin very well and makes it more wearable for everyday wear. 

So, what's your idea on subtles? And which one is your favorite? Glad to hear from you all :)

Instagram : @__kukuku__

Please keep updated, see you on our next post and definitely will be waiting for your visit!

KUKUKU Portfolio 8: Splatter Flower

This is a first time for me trying to combine abstract art with matte finish.

This time's design is called “splatter flower”, as it was created by splattering the gel randomly to make slashes or dotted pattern into several random small flowers.

The matte finish is definitely something worth trying for if you are bored for a standard glossy and shiny finish.

Confuse which finish should you choose, why not combine both? The example is this one:

Striking shocking pink with both statement shiny and dove finishing on one nail. All the good stuff in one design, if you dare enough.

How’s your thought? :)

Instagram : @__kukuku__

Please keep updated, see you on our next post and definitely will be waiting for your visit!

KUKUKU Portfolio 6: Marbles Marbles Marbles

There will be not enough of marblesssss!!!

It was indeed an all time favorite for everyone and suitable for any occasion!

Several of marbles that I have done throughout was these babies:

Designs that I did for my bestie, which screams her favorite, soft marble pattern and red, red, red! The combination looks so luxurious on her. In Japan, this brownish colored marble nail is called “bekkou nails” or “tortoise shell nails” as if were your nails are tortoise shell patterned.

The second one is the one that I did following internet tutorials. Yes, it’s not my own design however it gaves me slaps that marble can be done with lots of techniques. 

That explains why every person’s marble pattern is very different and personalized with each technique they use.

So, I stick with my way! This one was the one that I did on my own nail for my korea trip:

Standard pastel color on my right hand (as I can’t do much designs with my left hand.. sucks),

and soft pastel gradation marbles on my leftie.

The technique is a little bit different as I dabbed the color softly on several area with different colors and make marble pattern using lining brush and improvise myself from there. And yes I’m so greedy with designs so I did my left and right hand differently...

Let me know how’s your thought on this! Or maybe you can share your own marble designs here as well!

Instagram : @__kukuku__

Please keep updated, see you on our next post and definitely will be waiting for your visit!

KUKUKU Portfolio 5: Old Timeless Stuff

There are several collections of designs on my practice chips that I haven’t posted here yet. It’s quite random but too good to be thrown away...

So allow me to post it here!

2 of the design below was the one that I practiced for my Japan Nailist Certification back 2 years ago. The theme was standard flower for the first level and Japanese New Year (I choose Japan flower pattern with a bit of gold lining as an accent) or music for the second level. All done with acrylic paints as the base was nail polish. 

Oh how I remember how I'm struggling to just draw 1 petal of the flowers at that time...

Anyway! Next one is the design that I did to practice my lines back then, referring from several designs that I found on the websites. Still practicing too right now as fine lines is the most difficult brush control technique ever in my opinion.

Then I apply this line practice to my own nail…not all of it as it will become too much for the eye.

The formula that I usually use is 2:3; 2 for pattern design and 3 for simple design in one hand. Although most of the times I break my own rule if I wanted a more lavish or crowded design at one time.

Still so many random designs that I did in the past so will post them again on several next posts!

For further information, kindly check this posts:

Instagram : @__kukuku__

KUKUKU Portfolio 4: Sailor Moon Hype

Remember there’s this one time where this anime called Sailor Moon was such a hype everywhere (well, at least in Indonesia at around 1990ish?), ‘90s kids must know about this.

And as an adrenaline rush reaction for my private Sailormoon Exhibition visit last time in Japan (the blog can be read here) I went home and practice Sailor Moon freehand nail art back home on my own.

Some of the result is not satisfying enough for myself though. Gotta make those lines as killer as possible.

 And one last repeat post, since I’ve posted this photo on my previous blog.

I’m quite satisfied with the last one although I still have no confidence on doing it on real customer nails...

However please do inquire if you would like to have these kind of design on your appointment :) 

See you on the next one!

KUKUKU Portfolio 3: Beige Lovers

Beige is the most charming color yet so intricate. In my opinion beige is the most natural color that can be found, however it can be a true nuisance to match it perfectly to your skin. 100 skin tones, 100 different beiges, that is.

That's why I always feel like I will never have enough beige in my nail color collection!! The only way to satisfy my little OCD is to try as much beige colors to several different skin tones as much as possible! So here's some of my beige colored practices that I've done with several different nuance :)

The first one is a very simple yet edgy style of beige nails. That one simple white line just makes everything different. 

The second one is the one that I tried to combine with some seashells and holograms. I knew got glitches here and there but this one have more impact under the lighting as it blings everywhere! 

Doing some experiments with different materials is so much fun too!! And not to mention the beige tone match her skin flawlessly..

And the third one is the one that I did to myself times ago. I still think that the beige didn't match my skin as well as I expected it to be, I wanted it to be more transparent however it was more opaque from what I thought it will be. But that's okay. The one-point flower on the ring finger just fix everything!

I realize that after several practices on beiges or nudes, I have mostly of the yellowish beige color, I rarely experimenting on brownish or reddish beige as I know asian skin don't quite match that kind of tone, but I always wanted to try it (even if it for myself first). Will try to buy several new nudes color in the future.

In the meanwhile let me continue my search of the ultimate beige color for me (and for my customers too!) and I hope I will find it soon!

So, how's your thought on those beiges?? Lemme know yours on the comment box below!

For further information, kindly check this posts:

Please keep updated, see you on our next post and definitely always waiting for your visit!